Georgette Braun: Yes, for more cameras for cops

Sunday

Aug 24, 2014 at 4:42 PMAug 24, 2014 at 4:42 PM

The Ferguson, Missouri, Police Department owns two dashboard cameras. Neither had been installed in squads at the time of the Aug. 9 fatal shooting of unarmed black teenager Michael Brown by a white police officer, an event that sparked rioting there.

Whether a dash-cam video would have captured telltale evidence is unclear. But Rockford-area police and others say interactions between police and residents recorded by such cameras are invaluable. They reveal accurate representations of what happened.

Dash cams have been in use for years by Rockford-area police departments. Some have more cameras than others. For example, 12 of the Rockford Police Department’s 125 patrol cars are equipped with dash cams, compared with all 48 for Winnebago County Sheriff’s Department, and 15 of 17 in Belvidere.

But their use has been limited mostly to traffic stops because of an Illinois eavesdropping law that this year was ruled unconstitutional but remains in flux until legislators draft new rules to protect privacy. There had been an exception to that law for police use of cameras in traffic stops.

“They provide powerful evidence in traffic cases — DUIs, red-light/stop-sign violations, other traffic offenses witnessed by the deputy,” Kurt Ditzler, chief deputy of the Winnebago County Sheriff’s Department, said in an email.

“Complaints of deputy misconduct/rudeness are almost non-existent. If there is a complaint, it can usually be resolved very quickly by merely reviewing the video of the interaction.”

The Rockford Police Department expects to add eight more dashboard cameras by the end of the year, said Patrick Hoey, assistant deputy chief. Patrick Hayes, legal director for the city of Rockford, said the city had been spending money on patrol car updates. And because that has been pretty much accomplished, money is being directed to buying more dashboard cameras. Each costs about $7,000.

Hayes said increased use of video could reduce the city’s exposure to claims that police officers used excessive force in specific situations.

He said the city had settled 14 such claims out of court in the past five years. The smallest was for $500. The largest was for $205,000 and involved a “shoulder injury case (with) significant medical treatment clearly related to the apprehension,” he said. Many times, though, Hayes said, the city settles more out of concern about running up legal fees.

A 2005 International Association of Chiefs of Police report found that cameras aided law enforcement by improving officer safety. Cameras often confirm an officer’s version of events, the report said, in addition to reducing department liability and providing transparency for the community.

The U.S. Department of Justice has said that by 2007, 61 percent of local police departments were using video cameras in patrol cars, up from 55 percent in 2003.

In Illinois, use of dashboard cameras is likely to spread beyond traffic stops once the General Assembly rewrites the state’s eavesdropping law to allow certain public recordings while protecting private conversations. The Illinois Eavesdropping Act was ruled unconstitutional this year by the Illinois Supreme Court. It had made it a felony for someone to record a conversation unless all parties involved agreed.

When a new eavesdropping law is in place, Hoey said, it’s likely that Rockford police will start wearing body cameras. “We are ready for it,” Hoey said. “It will go a long way toward improving police and citizen communication.” Such small, wearable cameras that record virtually everything an officer sees can cost up to $1,000. Data storage costs are extra.

The Beloit Police Department in Wisconsin, has been using dash cams for a decade, said Capt. William Tyler. Twenty-five of its 40 squads have them. The department also has about a dozen body-worn cameras. In Wisconsin, two-party consent for audio taping is not required, as it had been in Illinois.

Tyler said dashboard cameras are effective for capturing patrol-car type activities, while body-worn cameras are more effective for use in drug- and gang-related investigations.

The Beloit force is among a small number of departments in the U.S. that use body-worn cameras. Departments in Cincinnati, Pittsburgh and Salt Lake City have begun experimenting with them. The Rialto Police Department in California started testing body-worn cameras in 2012. In the first year, the department reportedly saw an 88 percent decline in complaints filed against its officers from the year before.

The American Civil Liberties Union is on board.

“This is a technology that has a very real potential to serve as a check-and-balance on police power,” Jay Stanley, senior policy analyst at the ACLU said in a story reported by The Associated Press.

The Belvidere Police Department has had one body-worn camera since 2010 that it won from the Justice Department for a “forward-thinking project,” said Chief Jan Noble. He declined to say under what circumstances the body-worn camera is used other than it is for “testing and evaluation.”

U.S. law enforcement agencies “most likely will migrate to body-worn (cameras),” Noble said. “It’s still a couple of years out for us.”

Hoey said such cameras will be “the wave of the future for policing.”

Meanwhile, a St. Louis native has created petitions calling for police to wear body cameras: tinyurl.com/naqxjxs) and tinyurl.com/mnglqr3.

At the time of the shooting, Ferguson police had no cameras near where Michael Brown was shot.